This invention relates to providing a method that enables a viewer of images displayed on the internet to determine whether the items represented by those images are properly depicted in terms of color and clarity.
The internet provides viewers with both text and images. Images demonstrate, depict, illustrate, and represent physical items and are used, amongst many purposes, for entertainment, education, commerce, and gaming. Commerce via the internet is a major part of the U.S. economy. Retail internet sales totaled $172 billion in 2005.
One U.S. company, the online auction retailer eBay Inc., accounted for $43 billion of those sales. As is often the case with products offered for sale on the internet, most eBay auctions include a photograph or scan of the item for sale.
The decision whether to purchase an item for sale on internet sites is often dependent upon a product's visual features. This is particularly true for items such as clothing, fashion, baseball cards, stamps, and antiques. It is therefore important to the viewer as a potential purchaser that features such as color are accurately depicted in the image of an item that appears on the viewer's computer monitor.
A blue and green striped polo shirt that appears as purple and yellow in the image displayed on the computer monitor misrepresents the actual features of the product. There are a variety of reasons for these misrepresentations: inferior photographing or scanning equipment; improper lighting; poor scanning or photographing skills on the part of the displayer/seller; uploading, downloading or server imperfections. Should the viewer purchase the polo shirt under the mistaken impression he will receive a purple and yellow shirt, he will not be satisfied and the actual blue and green striped product will either be returned or the purchase considered unsatisfactory, creating negative goodwill or loss to the seller and wasted time and money for the buyer.
A Greenfield Online survey in March of 2002 found that:                81% of consumers say that a clear picture of the product is very or extremely important when buying online.        64% of users sometimes or very frequently do not complete an online purchase due to poor image quality or difficulties loading the pages        55% of respondents who have been faced with poor image quality or difficulty loading the pictures during the online sales cycle either give up on the purchase or buy from the competition.        Only 8% of those surveyed said they return to the site later to purchase the item        
Therefore, it is indisputable that color, clarity and depiction in an image are important factors in a buying decision. As such, there is a need for a method that will enable viewers of images or potential purchasers of items offered for sale to determine the true color, clarity and depiction of the item being represented by images that appear on the internet.
There is also a need for determining proper depiction in images on the internet in non-purchasing instances. Anyone desirous of communicating a “true” image of an object over the internet needs to aid the viewer in evaluating the color, clarity and depiction of the item being represented by the image he sees. Viewers in a myriad of fields depend upon the accuracy of internet images: scientists examining a photograph posted to a website; students studying images on an internet course; fashion designers in New York coordinating a new line of clothing with the head office in Paris.
This image evaluation system also has an application for broadcast television. With the advent of TV sellers on home shopping networks such as QVC where products are sold as they are “pitched” and viewers can call in and make their purchase, there is a need for proper depiction of the images that appear.
Further information on this image evaluation system can be found at www.iDepict.com.